By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s finance adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Friday that the country’s fiscal deficit was set to hit 9% of GDP in the ongoing fiscal year.
In an interview with Reuters at his office in Islamabad, Shaikh said the coronavirus-hit South Asian economy will also miss a tax revenue target that had recently been downwardly-revised and agreed to with the IMF, which gave the country a three-year, $6 billion bailout last year.
Pakistan is set to collect 3.9 trillion Pakistani rupees ($24.54 billion) in taxes, 19% below the downwardly revised target of 4.8 trillion Pakistani rupees ($30.20 billion).
The IMF also gave Pakistan a $1.386 billion rapid financing package last month to mitigate the economic fallout of the virus.
The country’s economy is now projected to contract 1% to 1.5% in the ongoing fiscal year, said Shaikh, who is effectively Pakistan’s finance minister.
“Revenue has taken a hit. Exports have taken a hit. Remittances have taken a hit, and, above all, our people are suffering,” Shaikh said.
Pakistan, which has reported 26,435 COVID-19 cases and 599 deaths, has announced it will start lifting a countrywide lockdown from Saturday.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
